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Stephen’s Intuitive Appraisals — A Great Supplement to Scott’s Analyses and Profiles:

Miscellaneous Archive

Success is entirely attributed to hard work and luck. At least that’s what you’ve been conditioned to believe.

I always recommend setting realistic goals and working diligently, ceaselessly toward your aspirations. But my findings tell me the underpinnings of success are transcendent and have far less to do with mere personal qualities and luck than with forces beyond your control.

Before anyone accuses me of fatalism or recommending a passive, wallflower approach to life, allow me to explain my theory.

Fifty talented corporate executives all possess about the same level of intelligence, self-discipline, objectivity, logical thinking ability, decisiveness, analytical ability, discretion, and all are emotionally balanced and stable. In other words, they all lack red flag personality traits that typically lead to failure. All fifty exhibit strong leadership traits. Each one is a high-achiever and possesses the same ability to be an independent, successful business owner.

All fifty leave the corporate world at about the same time to be independent entrepreneurs. Ten years later, 25 are succeeding wildly, 15 are doing okay, and 10 failed miserably and returned to climbing the corporate ladder.

The successes and failures, in these instances, have nothing to do with market forces; all fifty entered growing industries, under various thriving economies around the world. All fifty are good decision-makers.

You may call it luck, but I refer to luck as personal fate disguised. No matter how resourceful, smart, quick thinking, intuitive, persuasive, or hard working you are, you can’t cheat fate. In other words, there’s a lot in life you have no control over, including the actions of other people. Unfortunately for those 10 washouts, their unique predestination dictated defeat in that area of their life.

Give credit where credit is due—the winners earned their triumphs. My findings show you are 100% responsible for your personal fate. Sudden opportunities and advantages, chance meetings, and similar circumstances aren’t arbitrary and undeserved. Call it cosmic payback, all part of the tapestry of predetermination.

Life’s rewards extend well beyond finances—family relations, friends, love life, and more. A person typically has wonderful predetermination in one or a few areas, but not all. It’s very rare that someone “has it all.” You can’t replicate personal fate, but you can have an equal playing field to seek the opportunities you desire. Life isn’t supposed to be fair, but you can make the most of it by doing your best. Please note: as we say in the above linked article, “It’s not always the case that a person is enduring karmic retribution for past life dark deeds; sometimes the terrible experience is for other reasons, such as to help bring awareness to the world, or stop it from happening to others in the future.”

Fatalism is the belief that you have no control over your life’s circumstances. While I believe at least 75% of your core life circumstances and events are predetermined, I’m not a fatalist; I’m a realist.

The belief that there is much in life you can’t control is a sign of humility. This belief, in conjunction with divination and personality and compatibility analysis, allows you to capitalize on the rewarding parts of life and more easily deal with life’s challenges.

It’s a controversial viewpoint because it deflates the contention of unlimited, super-hero type free will and it presents an uncomfortable, even threatening dynamic to the self-help and inspirational speaking field.

Yet, there’s nothing wrong with accepting that there is a lot in life that you can’t change.

The case for embracing the notion of predestination:

The philosophy of unchangeable destined events in everyone’s life–challenging and rewarding–is rooted in the concept that there is a vastly bigger purpose to life than personal accomplishment and financial success.

Of course, those things are vital to the progression of the human race and they’re important to me on a personal level too, but there is more to life from a spiritual perspective. In my opinion, the tough stuff in life is necessary because it forces spiritual growth, the ultimate purpose of life.

Considering the daunting reality of being regularly tested throughout your life, responding to being tested, attempting to (and not always succeeding) constructively face your unique crises in life, and otherwise being confronted with things in your life that you can’t control, exposes the New Age mantra “nothing limits you” for what it is–cheap and disingenuous.

In the real world, it’s failure, and gratitude for the lesson, that often opens the door to your optimum path. The world is replete with people who failed in one industry and went on to great success in another, or failed in one relationship and then had success later.

Finally accepting that there are supposed to be occasional insurmountable brick walls in life just may save your sanity when you go through one of life’s inescapable rough periods.

The case for rejecting the notion of predestination:

The inspirational speakers tell you that the most uncompromising prison in the world is a person’s limiting belief systems.

Surely, a pessimist who believes she isn’t worth anything and can’t do anything right won’t accomplish much. Also, I think we can all agree that you should never tell a child that he doesn’t deserve good things in life. Likewise, don’t discourage the impressionable, but don’t exploit their naiveté either, and tell them all they have to do to become wealthy is “get in touch with the abundance of the universe.”

Being mature and rational adults, let’s put aside the pandering and the crowd-pleasing platitudes. Authentic self-help methods and spirituality have nothing to do with escapism.

While occasional flights of fantasy (e.g., dream-castling) may go hand in hand with inspiration leading to great accomplishment, basing your life on pie in the sky fallacies is a recipe for disappointment.

“You can do anything–what you believe you can achieve” may be just the thing you need to hear to get through the day, but truth be told, it’s a lie.

The outright denial of predestination hints at a refusal to accept the hard, cold realities of life, even when they happen. Unfortunately, those who hold such a philosophy tend to suffer resentment, despair, depression, anger, and worse when times get tough. Rejecting the notion that immutable personal adversity exists and that there’s nothing you can do to change some things in life, such as how others treat you, sets you up for misery.

Nothing is limiting about embracing the philosophy of personal fate and unpreventable personal adversity. It shows humility and a realistic outlook on life.

Do what you must to ignite the inner flame of inspiration, such as listen to your favorite music, but just remember that failure and success are equally essential to edging you closer to the being you are destined to become.

The topic of magic adds an interesting dynamic to the endless debate about fate vs. free will.

A few weeks ago an acquaintance reminded me of the Pagan holiday, May 1st (Beltane), one of eight sabbats celebrated by Pagans. The others include the Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Lammas, Autumn Equinox, and of course Halloween.

She told me the date May 1st is the biggest of the Pagan holidays; it holds the most opportunity to exercise free will to create the reality you desire.

I appreciate the Wiccan Rede, “An it harm none, do what ye will,” a moral code also common in other Witchcraft-based faiths, because it parallels a core tenet of my belief system: do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t harm yourself or anyone else.

I’m all for doing as much as you possibly can to manifest your aspirations. However, since the late 1990s, I’ve known of some ritual-based practitioners who attempt to negatively influence other people’s fate and otherwise abuse their knowledge and power. Every industry and group has bad characters, and the metaphysical and Pagan communities are no different.

It’s unfortunate that the dark practitioners, who, for example, attempt to hurt the chances of a politician in hopes of getting their favored candidate elected, refuse to acknowledge the karmic debt they accumulate (and negativity they generate) by doing so. There’s a price to pay for using black magic.

Alternatively, it’s perfectly acceptable to employ candle magic or other ritual-based practices to capitalize on your predestination, as long as your intent and actions are honorable.

Certainly, it would be wonderful to expunge current and future life challenges with the wave of a magic wand, but the real world teaches you that’s impossible.

My findings show me that personal fate exists; a lot in life you can’t change, no matter what you do. The complex patterns in the astrology and numerology charts reflect what is and what will be. The meaning of life, from my point of view, isn’t so baffling after all. Though, again, there’s nothing wrong with making the most of your fate.

Casting dark spells, attempting to manipulate other people’s lives, thereby violating the Wiccan Rede, is aligning yourself with dark energetic forces. As outrageous as it may sound, I believe doing so enslaves your soul, sentencing you to the lower dimensions in the afterlife.

You can do anything if you tap into the right emotions; if you’re creative enough, fun enough, and persuasive enough, you can get through to anyone.

This advice reminds me of the Dale Carnegie sales training I had many years ago. Sure, persuasiveness is important (as is not being a manipulative huckster), but tremendous emotional power and persuasiveness won’t change the things in life that you can’t control.

Decision is the ultimate power.

According to this line of thought, all you have to do is make the right decisions, like with casino gambling, and the world is yours. Simply make sure lady luck is on your side. Unfortunately, motivational speakers ignore the fact that you can’t just conjure up lady luck when you want.

It’s clear that resourcefulness is important for success, but tremendous resourcefulness isn’t something you can teach, and “when there’s a will there’s a way” is only true if your goals are realistic—within the boundaries of your personal fate.

The other determining factor of success is mastering personal fulfillment. Feeling good about what you’re doing is vital, and the way to do that is to give back.

Helping others can be a tremendous motivator, but you need a lot more than a humanitarian spirit to achieve your goals.

The denial of personal fate trap, the belief that anything is possible as long as you make the right decisions, can set you up for sorrow and suffering.

You failed to achieve your dreams, even though you did exactly what the motivational coach told you to do.

Imagine believing for twenty years that you caused harm to a friend, not knowing that it was the fault of someone else and that you’re actually innocent.

It’s similar to personal fate. Stop beating yourself up because you didn’t manifest those ambitious goals. As long as you do your best, that’s what matters. Failure is sometimes part of personal fate, as are the experiences along the way.

Adopting an unconventional, spiritual outlook, you escape the denial of personal fate trap and your life becomes much more meaningful and fulfilling.

“Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.” Alex Haley

Thoughts may be things, but they can’t make someone fall in love with you, control your supervisor’s behavior, eliminate your financial debt while spending imprudently, or make a tyrant play nice with the rest of the world.

In seeking a deeper understanding, it’s important to separate truth from fiction.

Truth may be what you believe to be true, yet it can be erroneous if empirical evidence and, or facts don’t support it.

Also, much of what conventional wisdom holds to be fiction may not be fiction.

What I Don’t Know

I don’t know if it’s possible for a time-traveler from the future to visit us in the present time. I haven’t investigated the theory, so I won’t call it fiction.

I don’t know for certain if extraterrestrials exist on other planets. Considering there exist over 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, each with nearby planets like Earth, the likelihood that at least some of those planets being inhabited with intelligent life is very high. I won’t call extraterrestrials fiction, nor will I deny that they are already among us on this planet.

I don’t know if alchemy is possible. I don’t know if it’s possible to manipulate matter at the atomic level and turn lead into gold. However, gold nanospheres exist in the stained-glass windows of select Medieval churches. Modern technology can’t replicate that glass. I refuse to call alchemy fiction.

I don’t know if adepts utilized The King’s Chamber in The Great Pyramid in Egypt as a star-gate to travel to distant planets. I do know that the environment of that chamber (about the size of a racket-ball court) felt to me to be other-dimensional and otherworldly; standing in that room in May of 2000, I felt like I was in an altered state of consciousness, comparable to what I experience in deep meditation. I won’t call the theory of star-gate travel fiction.

What I Do Know

I do know that facts are objective and not subjective. Sometimes what a person believes to be their truth is fiction. Something demonstrably false is fiction.

For example, someone once said to me, in so many words, “My Sun sign is Taurus and not Gemini. I use the Sidereal zodiac instead of the Tropical zodiac for my Sun sign because it reflects my truth.”

It’s acceptable if she chooses to view her Sun sign as Taurus and not Gemini, since the Sidereal zodiac is a valid zodiac.

The problem is that Sun sign astrology is demonstrably bogus; you can cherry pick characteristics of any “horoscope” to fit the narrative of your choosing. The Sidereal zodiac can be useful, but not in a superficial sense, as with Sun sign astrology.

In the case above, the person is uninformed about the workings of authentic astrology, embraces Sun sign astrology, and then claims it (the subjective collection of traits for “a Taurus”) reflects her truth. Subjective personality assessments are notoriously erroneous.

Another example involves motivational speakers and New Age gurus who deny that personal adversity exists and that some things in life are insurmountable. The hucksters and carnival barkers spiritual best-selling authors know that inspiration rooted in fantasy sells and that the truth is far less profitable.

Reasonable people acknowledge that there’s a lot in life you can’t control. Sometimes your unique personal adversity, whether it be an immutable health issue, inescapable familial or marital burden, or other issue blocks the success you desire no matter what you do.

Certainly, unalterable personal adversity exists. To deny that exemplifies living a lie. The “you can overcome anything” and “nothing limits you” mantras are eventually seen for what they are: disingenuous assertions by profiteers.

If you’re fair, you strive to investigate something from all possible angles before you discount it as fiction. Separating truth from fiction demands a decent sense of discernment and the ability to be objective. Once you find evidence showing a theory is invalid, you’re that much closer to the truth of the matter.

Effectively separating truth from fiction takes practice, but ultimately striving to see the truth in all matters helps you to live a more rewarding and happy life.

The ultimate compatibility test, one that will quickly reveal how compatible you are with another person on a personal or professional level, is greatly sought after.

The problem is that it doesn’t exist, at least in a form usable by anyone, without having to learn any forms of personality analysis.

True compatibility is much deeper than sharing a lot of the same interests and ideals. You’ve been there before, undoubtedly: you seem to have similar personalities, interests, and values; both lack significant personality red flags, yet you still bring out the worst in each other.

How can this be, you ask? It’s because genuine compatibility goes much deeper than your biases, background, values, whether or not you like sports, culinary tastes, politics, religion, how much you’re willing to work at it to make it harmonious, or what you like to do for fun.

The ultimate compatibility test has everything to do with invisible forces beyond conventional thinking, and it has little to do with subjective self-tests and on-line quizzes. The more limited the self-knowledge (typically, very limited), the greater the results of self-tests and quizzes are skewed, and that’s not even including the honesty factor; people notoriously answer how they think they should answer or in a way that indicates they’re seeking some sort of “I’m a good person” award.

I employ the ultimate compatibility test in my systems of analysis. I realize the skepticism you may have about such a statement, but I believe it is true after testing countless methods and developing my own methodologies over the last 20+ years.

Additionally, it would take years to instruct someone (especially a person who favors modern astrology techniques) how to fully utilize my proprietary systems of analysis, which are compartmentalized and coded for security. They are as useful to the uninitiated as a jungle map in an ancient tribal language, while stuck in the middle of the Amazon without any survival skills.

My long-term findings show that the general inclination of your future is fated, along with many of the core particulars. The overall framework of life circumstances involving money, love life, family, partnerships, career, and much more is fated in life.

Considering all the various ways people “choose” to behave, when you identify distinct patterns in the comprehensive charts time and time again symbolizing that “chosen” behavior, you realize it’s not choice, but fate.

Please note: my philosophy is that you should always assertively work toward your goals and that fate usually necessitates that you do so. Consider personal fate and free will partners. However, fate (rewarding or challenging) does show up at your doorstep without warning, at times.

Understanding which situation you’re in—just leaving, about to encounter, or currently encountering problems—allows you to take appropriate action. Dialing in to the specifics and timing of your personal fate allows you to minimize your overall risk and maximize the rewards, no matter what is fated in your life.

The fate vs. free will debate will probably continue ad infinitum, just like the creationism vs. evolution argument.

I’d like to be able to give people infinite hope by telling them that unavoidable personal adversity doesn’t have to exist, that they can override fate with their free will, but our findings completely contradict that notion.In the fate vs. free will competition, fate always prevails.

An aside, it goes without saying that you’re going to tell someone with a near-fatal wound as she lies there on the ground, “You’re going to make it, hang in there.” It can be the difference between life and death.

However, delivering a you-can-do-it-fate-does-not-exist message to someone who wants to know about their future only sets someone up for disappointment and, or worse. Why not tell it like it is to help the person prepare for the predestined challenges? I’m all for inspiration, but it must be grounded in realism.

The fate-doesn’t-exist crowd proclaims, “If someone says you can’t change fate, run! They are not telling you the truth.”

There are four main possible reasons for rejecting fate in the fate vs. free will debate:

1. The practitioner is simply out of her league; she can’t predict personal fate using her superficial approach. By saying, “The outcome is up to you, nothing is set in stone,” she hedges her bets. In doing so, she becomes an inspirational coach, not someone who acts in the ancient tradition of interpreting personal fate.
2. The psychic is very talented, sees future personal adversity and predetermined circumstances, but does not want to upset his client, so he says, “It could go either way. Tread carefully and you’ll be okay,” knowing the outcome will be tragic.
3. The denier of personal fate and unavoidable adversity senses deep down inside that her overall fate isn’t very fruitful, she isn’t strong enough to come to terms with it, thus prefers to pretend she can create the life of her dreams, no matter her predetermination.
4. The person rejects the notion of personal fate, choosing to believe he can achieve anything he puts his mind to. Setting significant goals and doing everything you can to achieve them is absolutely how you should live your life, but an ego-fueled outlook on life, void of humility too often ends in disaster.

I’ve received many e-mails about the fate vs. free will issue; this is one of the more recent ones: “Some psychics say you can change when a prediction happens, that you can make it happen earlier by removing blocks and you can also delay it by doing things like thinking about it too much or asking the spirit world for a time frame too often which can delay it? Is that true in your opinion?”

My findings clearly show that “removing blocks” won’t allow you to cheat fate. If something is going to happen, it will happen, at the time it’s supposed to happen.

Don’t be discouraged about the realities of fate vs. free will. Within the theory of predestination is the promise of the rewarding things in your life being fated too. Although immutable personal adversity will always exist, if you believe, you can achieve it, as long as the goal harmonizes with your destined path.

One of the more shocking examples of subconscious mind power and how it operates on its own, despite your efforts to control it, involves sex.

No matter how virtuous your intentions, your subconscious mind sometimes has sex with someone other than your partner.

For those of you who don’t have a romantic partner, your subconscious mind may have sex with other people’s partners, among others; the subconscious mind doesn’t even acknowledge the concept of monogamy.

Your subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between imagination and reality, and it certainly won’t obey your command to avoid focusing on sex.

It’s perfectly natural to think “not very nice” thoughts sometimes. You can’t control your subconscious mind power, but you can detach from it, such as through meditation.

The problem is when you deny your subconscious mind power, creating a battle between your conscious and unconscious mind. Even worse is lacking control of your behavior, falling under the influence of negative subconscious mind power.

“If our subconscious was attractive, we wouldn’t have to bury it down deep within us.” Doug Coupland